recommendations for a color managed inkjet rip for designers

[Mark Hoffman]

Greetings all,
I have been asked to recommend a good rip for a small (6) group of designers who have just purchased an Epson 3880. They would prefer it to be Mac based. They want to be able to proof to the Epson and predict what their press sheets will look like. Their local printer will be able to provide profiles for their press and will profile the proofer.
They are currently printing direct to the proofer with the Epson provided driver, and are not happy with the color or rendering.
They work exclusively in Adobe Indesign and Illustrator CS3.
Any recommendations will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark

 

[Tech]

Check out this thread regarding in-house proofer

http://printplanet.com/forums/prepress-workflow-discussion/15491-house-proofing-system

 

[Werby]

EFI ColorProof, CGS ORIS ColorTuner or GMG Colorproof will all be able to give you excellent results. In terms of running under Mac OS X, EFI is cross-platform, I think GMG is windows only (could be wrong) and ORIS offers a "Personal Edition" which runs on mac, while the full rip is windows only.

The ColorTuner Personal edition could be what they are looking for, as it only costs $1300. Full featured rips are at least $5K. You don't get as much control of color with the Personal Edition, but it does allow you to plug-in existing profiles, so it could be adequate.

It's hard for people to swallow that a RIP costs 2 or 3 times what they paid for their inkjet printer, but if they want predictable color, it is totally worth it. Plus a RIP can support multiple printers at once and/or you can upgrade your printer and use the same RIP and still get the same color.

-Todd Shirley

 

[edwinb]

Ive just installed a 7800 with an efi express rip which is cheap, mac or pc based and worked fine giving iso 39 proofs on non epson media
edwin

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

There are two good options, IMO:

1. EFI Colorproof eXpress - starts at $750.00. There are also online learning modules for this product and can be very helpful in cost effective installations. Both of these can be bought from us. A sample course can be viewed here:

Chromaticity | Training and Services - C4

2. Colorburst - a classic RIP for small businesses.

Boith of these RIPs are Mac based. EFI works on Macs or PCs.
EFI is also upgradable to a full version.

We have ICC profiles available for our media so that designers can generate GRACoL or SWOP proofs that are "certified."

 

[edwinb]

There are two good options, IMO:

1. EFI Colorproof eXpress - starts at $750.00. There are also online learning modules for this product and can be very helpful in cost effective installations. Both of these can be bought from us. A sample course can be viewed here:

Chromaticity | Training and Services - C4

2. Colorburst - a classic RIP for small businesses.

Boith of these RIPs are Mac based. EFI works on Macs or PCs.
EFI is also upgradable to a full version.

We have ICC profiles available for our media so that designers can generate GRACoL or SWOP proofs that are "certified."

Unless your in the UK Where you can get cheap image2output rips and support
Edwin